Packing terminal for fruit sorting machines



June 30, 1936. w. A. TRESCOTT PACKING TERMINAL FOR FRUIT SORTING MACHINES Fild March 5 1955 IN VENTOIR Tres coil? 7 izzzgs 7m; A TTORNE Y Patented June 30, 1936 l 7 illiir STATES enter "Fries PACKING TERMINAL FOR FRUIT SORTING MACHINES Willis A. Trescott, Fairport, N. Y., .assignor to The Trescott Company, Inc., Fairport, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application March 30, 1933, Serial No. 663,557

2 Claims. (Cl. 226129) My present invention relates to fruit handling delivered from the chute or conveyor I and carries apparatus, such as sorters, graders and cleaners, it between side rails it in the direction of the and more particularly to the terminal facilities arrow. The belt is endless, running between a thereof, and it has for its general object to proroll II at the last mentioned end and a roll l2 5 vide a simple, durable and convenient form of located substantially in the center of the inclined 5 packing table, with the assistance of which the rigid table top 5. fruit is gathered into containers for shipment or Adjacent to the last mentioned roll, the belt storage. The improvements are directed in part or apron 9 lies in the plane of and constitutes a toward providing such a table that will handle continuation of the fixed table surface 5 which 10 the fruit rapidly in large volume with a minimum is cut away to form a well for this purpose. A 10 of effort on the part of the packer. guide roller l3 defines the break between the To these and other ends, the invention resides relatively angular table surfaces at their junction in certain improvements and combinations of andsupports the upper reach or conveying surparts, all as willbehereinafter more fullydescribed, face of the belt together with other idler rollers the novel features being pointed out in the claims It. All the rolls are supported in suitable bearis at the end of this specification. ings in the frames 2 and 3 and roll I2 is a driven In the drawing: roll, its extended shaft being provided with a Fig. l is a top plan view of such a fruit machine sp ocket 5 a d Chain running to y u e discharge terminal provided with a packing table source of power. The device is operated and used constructed in accordance with and illustrating as follows: g 20 one embodiment of my invention, and The receiving barrels or other packing recep- Fig. 2 is a vertical section therethrough taken tacles are placed beneath the gates l which are substantially on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1. dropped down and as the fruit is spilled from the Similar reference numerals throughout the sevute l on to the horizental table p o of the eral views indicate the same parts. belt 9 it is conveyed over the break l3 and spilled 25 Referring more particularly to the drawing, upon the inclined table surface where the operthe fruit handling apparatus to be equipped with ator or packer directs them generally into the my improved packing table is indicated by the receptacles by hand in order to attain some semdelivery chute or conveyor I shown broken away b a f regularity in the packing and i su e a and from which it will be assumed a continuous comp disposition of the fruit therein- The 30 stream of apples or other fruit is delivered from inclination of the table 5, the surface of which is the direction indicated by the arrow, this being, p r y fix d and p y v should be out in the present instance, a side delivery 'table such that Shown in the drawing, that Slight u h as is provided to take care of each grade of sized to s w the movement of the fruit thereon y fruit in amultiple machine. The table comprises abrupt enough to continue their feeding prog- 35 an upper substantially horizontal frame portion ress. These pecking t bles a e made rather large 2 adjacent to the chute l united with or continand appl particularly, because f h r re auing into an inclined frame portion 3 all suptiv y fiat n are disposed to k early l ported on suitably braced legs l. The inclined me t a d o r011 as far as t s. t as 40 frame carries an expanse of fixed surface proe t pp experience, been e 0 vided by a rigid table top portion 5 enclosed by ry f r hi to use a stick or other imp en side rails 6 and of the'shape shown in Fig. l, in' the manner of a croupier to dislodge such apnamely, wide laterally at the center with the D 5 a force them toward With y side rails converging in both directions, upwardly vice, this is not necessary because the central toward the horizontal frame 2 and downwardly upp portion of the inclined packing and i spec- 45 to a pair of gateways closed by drop gates I hinged tion table has a traveling or agitating surface at at 8. These gateways are separated by an inter the po Where the pp s a ost liable to mediate reentran t triangular construction 6 of choke and the result is that the ap uthe side rails 6 to generally divert descending 5 ow to the fOOt Ofthe grade Within sy fruit so that it is divided between the gateways. reach of the packer so that there is no loss of 50 The top of the horizontal portion of the table, time in the packing and no diversion or spilling represented by the frame portion 2, is traversed resulting from jammed collections of fruit. by and, in the present instance, its surface is en- An additional advantage flowing from this contirely constituted by, a canvas or similar belt 9 struction results from the fact that the fruit are that initially takes the fruit at one end as it is conveyed within packing reach gently, reducing the extent to which they roll, fall or are tumbled about, thereby avoiding bruising contacts.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a packing terminal for fruit sorting machines, the combination with a delivery chute, of a table having a substantially horizontal receiving portion in communication with the chute and a relatively inclined packing portion, the inclination of the latter being slight enough to slow the movement of the fruit thereon yet abrupt enough to continue their feeding progress, and a conveying and agitating belt extending across the receiving portion and partly across the packing portion, said packing portion being provided with 15 marginal rails for limiting the dispersion of the rolling fruit and formed with divided filling gates at the lower end.

2. In a packing terminal for fruit sorting machines, the combination with a delivery chute, of a table having a substantially horizontal receiving portion in communication with the chute and a relatively inclined enclosed packing portion terminating at the lower end in filling gateways, and a conveying and agitating belt extending across the receiving portion and partly across the packing portion toward the gateways, there being provided a guide roller for the belt at the break between the two table portions. 

